Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-02-25
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
Regular Correspondent.

Last week it was industrious, but just
now it is taking its short life easily,
On Wednesday large amount of obit-
uary eloquence was expended in the
Senate in honor of the late Senator
Logan, and in the House similar eulo-
CYSTIC speeches were made in honor OF
Mr.. Price, the late Representative from
Wisconsin. These memorial services
consume a great deal of time but they
are not business, and it was hoped
that the useless custom would be alb
rogated before the end of this session.
The President acknowledges himself
very much worried over the selection
of suitable persons to serve on the In
terstatc Commerce Commission. He
says nothing has given him more con-
Germ since he came into Office, he is so
desirous that the members OF the Com
mission shall be practical men of affairs,
and acceptable to the majority of all
parties concerned. 1t is stated by a
Congressman who processes to know
that Col. Morrison has been offered his
choice between the chairmanship of
the commission and the Secretaryship
of the Treasury Department. 1t is un-
derstOod that the President will not
appoint any member of either the SEN
ate or House who has been elected to
the Fiftieth Congress.
| AS the session draws steadily to Il
close it is feared nothing will be done
to change Inauguration Day from the
4th of March to the 3Oth of April.
Unless the proposed amendment to
the Constitution is submitted by this
Congress, the change cannot be made
in 1889, and the next inaugural pro-
cession along the grand avenue will
again be compelled to face the pneu-
mountaineering gales of March.
There are so many presidential aspir-
ants in Congress who are interested on
this subject that it is to be hoped the
matter will be pushed through in the
closing hours of the session, when so
many schemes pass through with a
rush. Almost everybody favors the
change, and no argument in its behalf
is needed. A few minutes of action is
all that is necessary.
Much interest is felt to know what
the President will do with that disabil-
ity pension bill, or the pauper pension
bill, as it is called. Not that it is a
bill for paupers, but a bill to make
paupers out of self-supporting citizens.
1t was not supposed that the bill stood
any chance of passing not even by the
demagogues, claim-agents and dead
beats who advocated it, but the desper-
alton of the men who attitudinize as
the soldiers champions was under
rated. They managed to pass this,
one of the most reckless specimens of
legislation ever presented in Congress.
and thus throw upon Democratic
President the responsibility of standing
in its way.
As loud howl of indignation came
up flom the country over the passage
of this universal pension bill as was
the shout of congratulation over the
defense bill, passed by the Senate a
few days ago. Just think that after
Republican Administrations have ex-
pended in the last eighteen years eight
times fifty millions for naval purposes
there is nothing to show for it to-day.
Secretary Whitney has just issued an
order that some of Uncle Sans old
hulks be sold. He mentions eight
condemned vessels, such as are unfit
for further service in the navy, lying
now at San Francisco, New York and
League Island. But the country has
reason to feel that practical use will be
made of the money which Congress
may now vote to be spent on the
navy. Consequently when the Senate
agreed to the sum of $21 ,OOO, 900 for
sea-coast defense and big guns, an
echo of applause came back from every
corner of the nation.
Returning to that remarkable PEN
sion bill, which it is to be hoped the
President will veto, it may be we'll to
mention that under such law the
pension roll would be more numerous
than the Union army ever was. The
bill virtually pensions every man who
was in the army, without regard to
ability or disability, wealth or poverty,
and provides as well for the so-called
dependent parents of soldiers who
died. II provides a pension for every
ex-soldier who will say he cannot earn
Il support. And who is to define what
Il support is? Some men require $500
year for support and others require
$25, 600. AS there is no definite mean
ing to the term support" what is to
prevent any man, however extrava-
CANT, from claiming that the $12 a
month, in addition to his income, is
necessary to his support?
The bill offers premium to every
man who was in the army to become a
loafer and depend upon the Govern
ment for support. Tens of thousands
OF men do live on So a week, and if the
measure should unfortunately become
q law, 1t would merely increase the
great army of the unemployed.
DEN.